Where ‘Socialized Medicine’ Has a U.S. Foothold

[ProSense]

Where ‘Socialized Medicine’ Has a U.S. Foothold

By UWE E. REINHARDT

Last Friday’s exuberant celebration of Britain’s National Health Service during the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics, directed by the Oscar-winning filmmaker Danny Boyle, got me thinking about American attitudes about socialized medicine.

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I have found that one effective way I can stop N.H.S.-bashing dead in its track is to ask bashers this simple question: “Why don’t you like my son?” I posed that question to a congressman who had berated “socialized medicine” during a hearing on health insurance reform at which I testified.

In response to the stunned look this question invariably elicits, I go on: ”You see, our son is a retired captain of the U.S. Marine Corps. He is an American veteran. Remarkably, Americans of all political stripes have long reserved for our veterans the purest form of socialized medicine, the vast health system operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (generally known as the V.A. health system). If socialized medicine is as bad as so many on this side of the Atlantic claim, why have both political parties ruling this land deemed socialized medicine the best health system for military veterans? Or do they just not care about them?”

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Socialized medicine refers to systems that couple social health insurance with government-owned and operated health care facilities, such as Britain’s N.H.S. or the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, a still-appreciated legacy of British colonialism. Socialized medicine also typified the health systems operated by the former socialist countries in the Soviet orbit. Evidently, the V.A. health system perfectly fits the definition of socialized medicine.

- more -

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/03/where-socialized-medicine-has-a-u-s-foothold/

Improving Quality of Care: How the VA Outpaces Other Systems in Delivering Patient Care
http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9100/index1.html

We Already Have a Popular Single-Payer Health Care System -- It's for Active Military and Veterans
http://www.alternet.org/story/141048/we_already_have_a_popular_single-payer_health_care_system_--_it's_for_active_military_and_veterans

[unblock]

1. i loves me some uwe! but please, for the sake of our vets, don't gives them any ideas!

i never took one of his classes, but i heard he gives outstanding lectures.

[ProSense]

4. Surprise!

"for the sake of our vets, don't gives them any ideas!"

If it means screwing over people, Mitt's already thought of it.

Romney Backs Away From Plans To Privatize Veterans Health Care

By Igor Volsky

During a roundtable in South Carolina on Veterans’ Day, Mitt Romney floated the idea of partially privatizing the veterans health care system, saying, “Sometimes you wonder if there would be some way to introduce some private-sector competition, somebody else that could come in and say, you know, that each soldier gets X thousand dollars attributed to them, and then they can choose whether they want to go in the government system or in a private system with the money that follows them.”

Veterans groups swiftly condemned the proposal, and today Romney himself backed away from privatization in an interview with the Nashua Telegraph:

ROMNEY: I have no proposal of that nature (to privatize the VA). We has a group of veterans and said, ‘tell me about the quality of your care.’ Some were concerned about the quality of their health care. I said, ‘what kind of options do you have, what do you think about a system that let you go to private as well as VA hospitals?’ The response was mixed, but I don’t have any proposal of that nature. We have a VA system that needs to be improved and I’ve got no plans to change that other than to make it better and to invest more money in providing for our veterans.

- more -

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2011/11/21/373633/romney-backs-away-from-plans-to-privatize-veterans-health-care/

"We have a VA system that needs to be improved"

[unblock]

5. oy vey!

[ProSense]

9. He should be asked about this too. n/t

[greatauntoftriplets]

2. When I saw your headline, I had a hunch this would be about Tricare.

I have friends in Virginia who love their Tricare coverage. He's a dyed-in-the-wool Republican and she tends Democratic. Go figure.

[cbayer]

3. The whole miliatary complex is socialized, at the very least.

One of my favorite stories is about a member of the military who was brought into the emergency room. After discussing with his wife what she would like to do, I called his commanding officer to tell him.

And he said to me, "if we had wanted him to have a wife, we would have issued him one".

LOL.

Anyway, the VA system has some of the best practices in the country, including electronic medical records.

[pkdu]

6. Here is another one...

http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc76.htm

[The River]

7. I Love My Socialized (VA) Health Care

The best feature, IMHO, is their proactive stance on care.
Twice a year they schedule a checkup for you. If anything is amiss,
they schedule follows ups until things are fixed. They catch potential
problems before they become big problems.

Another thing I don't see in regular hospitals is that everyone at the VA is so friendly.
Doctors, staff and even the patients. They all thank us for our service and the opportunity
to serve us. Since we patients are all "brothers-in-arms"; conversations, friendships and random
acts of kindness break out all the time.

We would be a much healthier Country if all hospitals operated this way.

[underpants]

8. The South is over represented in the Army I can tell you

Florida and California also